Conlogue, Open continue to peak

Courtney Conlogue, the 2009 women's champion, advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's division at the 2013 Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach on Thursday.

KEVIN CHANG / Coastline Pilot

KEVIN CHANG / Coastline Pilot

Mike Sciacca

HUNTINGTON BEACH — The heats are heating up and action sports will go full throttle this weekend at the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing.

The nine-day event which features surfing, skating and BMX competitions, art and music plus an interactive village, is in its final three days at the south side of the Huntington Beach Pier. The Women's and Men's Prime surfing semifinals and finals Sunday highlight the closing day.

The pool of U.S. Open of Surfing title hopefuls will continue to be whittled down in the next few days. Friday's schedule starts with the Men's Prime Round 4 heats and includes the Women's Round 4 heats, plus the Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational quarterfinals presented by Pacifico.

On Saturday will be the Men's Prime Round 5 heats, Women's quarterfinals, finals for both Junior Women and Junior Men, and the Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational semifinals and final. The BMX final and skate qualifiers also are Saturday.

The nine-day U.S. Open of Surfing comes to a close Sunday with the Men's Prime quarterfinals, semifinals and final, Women's semifinals and final, and Van Doren Invitational Skate semifinals and final.

On Tuesday, Courtney Conlogue of Santa Ana won her opening heat in the Open Women's competition. The 20-year-old, a 2010 graduate of Sage Hill School in Newport Beach, rode several sets and controlled the 30-minute heat which she led throughout.

Conlogue, No. 4 in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Women's Title rankings, is seeking her second Open Women's crown. She won the title in 2009.

"I had caught a lot of waves up to that point and as I sat there, waiting for the next set, I thought that I should probably pace myself," she said. "You definitely want to stay busy out there and give yourself as many chances as you can, and that's what I was doing. I just hoped that I wasn't overdoing it. I was going at a pretty high frequency."

Conlogue had no need to worry about her plan of attack. What she did, from the get-go, was set the pace in her three-person heat, which included a pair of talented Australian athletes, Rebecca Woods and Laura Enever. Conlogue's first-wave score of 5.83 in the early stages of the 30-minute heat established the tone and catapulted her the remainder of the way.

Around the 17-minute mark, she scored a 7.43. For good measure, she posted a 7.03 with under five minutes to surf.

Tuesday's win gave Conlogue a coveted spot in Thursday's Women's Round 3. In the opening heat of the round, she again led the entire way and won the heat with a two-wave score of 15.43. She emerged from a heat that included five-time World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (Australia) and Silvana Lima I(Brazil).

Lima also won her opening heat Tuesday, a heat that included Gilmore, to advance straight to Round 3.

Gilmore was surfing her third heat in three days.

The win Thursday gave Conlogue an automatic spot in Saturday's Women's quarterfinals.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now," she said. "The only way that I'm approaching this is day by day, heat by heat. There's still a lot more surfing to go."